


Request or Demand

by Applesandbannas747



Category: Fence (Comics)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-09
Updated: 2019-04-09
Packaged: 2020-01-10 19:26:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18414338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Applesandbannas747/pseuds/Applesandbannas747
Summary: Sometimes you get tired of saying goodbye.





	Request or Demand

Seiji watched Nicholas with the sort of idle habit that comes only after many years of life together. Nicholas always offered his eyes a place to rest, familiar, comforting, pleasant. It was where they always landed, if they had nowhere else to go. The summer’s evening air was crisp and fresh, the sun still offering light, though it was well past dinner. Nicholas leaned into his chair, throwing his head back in laughter over a joke or comment Seiji had not heard. But he heard the laugh. He always heard that laugh. It had never changed, since they’d first met six years ago. Nicholas hadn’t changed hugely either, though he’d matured in small ways. As had they all.

The patio was alight with sound and movement, which would once have bothered Seiji. Overwhelmed him. Not anymore. At least, not as frequently. Tonight, the loud chatter of his old fencing team, of their families and friends, put him in a good mood. He was glad they stayed in touch, came together relatively often. Their summer barbecue was a long held tradition, and the day had bled to evening almost too fast. Soon, it would be time for farewells until next time.

Tanner’s and Eugene’s little siblings tumbled in the grass together, and parents flocked together to talk and exchange embarrassing stories about their children. Harvard and Aiden had disappeared into Harvard’s family house and had yet to reemerge. Eugene and Bobby sat at the table with him and Nicholas, and the other three talked animatedly. Seiji didn’t, not now. He was too lethargic from food and earlier conversation and contentment to want to talk just now. So he watched Nicholas. Watched his hands fly about in arcing gestures, watched the fading sun dance off his skin and hair, watched his eyes twinkle and gleam with joy and enthusiasm. Seiji loved him. More than anything. Didn’t want to part with him this evening, though he knew they had a date later this week. It had, frankly, been a shock to him when they’d graduated high school and were no longer always together. It had been good for them, had allowed them to grow as they’d needed to. But he’d missed it then, and he missed it now, ached for it more than ever.

“Nicholas,” Seiji broke into the conversation. And, since it was such a rare thing for him to do, Eugene and Bobby yielded their speaking at once to silence. “Marry me.”

“Is that a request or a demand?” Nicholas asked, lopsided smile coming almost instantaneously to his face, covering his split second of utter shock almost perfectly.

“Does it matter? I’ll get what I want, either way.” Seiji registered the silence of his table spreading across the entire gathering. Didn’t care. Nicholas laughed.

“Yeah, I guess you will. But would it kill you to be romantic, for once? I mean, a damned marriage proposal ought to be romantic, I’m sure even  _you_  know that.” He didn’t look like he minded, though. Seiji shrugged.

“If you’d wanted romantic, you shouldn’t have left it to me.”

“You’re unbelievable,” Nicholas said, getting to his feet and rounding the table, stopping when he was before Seiji, “Stand up,” he reached down for Seiji’s hands, trying to yank him up.

“Manners, please.” Seiji said, resisting Nicholas’s pull.

“Stand up, _please,_ ” Nicholas amended, and Seiji allowed Nicholas to help him out of his chair. Very quietly, Nicholas breathed, “who ever said I planned to leave it up to you?” And, to Seiji’s amazement, Nicholas dropped to one knee, still clasping one of Seiji’s hands. His left hand.

“You’re not serious.” Seiji could see the glint of amusement mixed with determination and knew that, yes, Nicholas  _was_ serious.

“Seiji Katayama, you are unlike anyone I’ve ever met—and I’m asking you please to save all comments until I’m finished, because I can see that you’re dying to jump in and mock me right now.” There was a smattering of laughter from their sizable audience. “It won’t be the last time you feel the urge, so I’m telling you now, please refrain from interrupting. Now that  _that’s_ settled, let’s get going,” he brushed a kiss across Seiji’s knuckles. “You’re amazing, everyone knows it. From the very first time I met you, I couldn’t stop watching you. Sure, there was a lot of spite in it, at the time, but you’re really something to see when you fence. I fell in love with you on the strip before I even liked you off it. And when I fell in love with you—with  _all_  of you, I knew there wasn’t a chance in hell I’d ever fall out of it. You’ve got a reputation to keep up, so I won’t go telling everyone about how kind and thoughtful you are, or about all the other things I love about you. I’m sure you know that all, anyway. I tell you often enough. I know we’re still pretty young, and I know there’s still a lot of things that could go wrong, but I also know we’ll always make it work, in the end. You’re the only one for me, and I’m really tired of having to say goodbye every night. I don’t want to waste any time, Seiji, because I want to spend all of it with you. So, will you save me the heartache and make every one of my days full of the happiness only you can give me—,” he pulled out a small, velvet box and flipped it open with one hand, revealing a golden band nestled within. “Will you marry me?”

Seiji stared at the ring, glistening in the setting sun, then looked to Nicholas’s face. He hadn’t expected this. Wasn’t sure how to react. He was still trying to digest Nicholas’s speech which had been mortifyingly sappy and also wonderfully beautiful. He thought he might cry, but fought off the urge, clutched to Nicholas’s hand tighter instead.

“Seiji,” Nicholas said eventually, amusement mixing with nerves on his face, “unlike you, I actually asked a question. You’ve got to give me an answer.”

“Yes,” Seiji said, surprised he hadn’t already said it. “Of course I’ll marry you,” and his trance was broken, a smile spreading uncharacteristically wide on his face as he felt a happy flush overtake him.  _“Yes.”_

Nicholas hooted a laugh in victory, was on his feet in an instant, arms wrapping tight around Seiji’s middle and lifting him off the ground. Seiji laughed too, looped his own arms around Nicholas’s neck and let himself be swung around once before tapping back down to the ground, at the same time falling deeper into Nicholas’s arms and permitting one kiss between them here among all their family and friends.

 

* * *

 

Seiji stared down at his hand in awe. He’d never worn jewelry before, so the heavy weight of the ring, the way it caught the light as he moved his left hand, was very obvious and new to him, catching his attention again and again. He felt giddy, seeing it rest there on his ring finger, identical to the one Nicholas wore.

“I’m glad you like it,” Nicholas said, catching him staring at the ring for what had to be the tenth time that day alone. He’d been wearing it for three days, and still it seemed every time he glimpsed it to be new and wonderfully astonishing. He looked up to Nicholas now, who shrugged modestly. “It’s not much, I know you could have gotten better, but…”

“It’s perfect,” Seiji said, protectively bringing his hand, and his ring, close against his chest. Nicholas laughed.

“Yeah.”

“How long did you have it in your pocket?” Seiji voiced a question that had flitted through his mind the moment he’d seen Nicholas pull out the ring box.

“Ah,” Nicholas ducked his head in a rare show of embarrassment. “I’ve been carrying it around for…about a month? Yeah, that’s about right.”

“Why didn’t you ask sooner?” Seiji asked, pleased to know Nicholas had been intending to marry him for long enough to have saved up to buy the ring and then carry it around for a month before proposing. Loved that Nicholas had made the decision to marry him months ago and had carefully planned it out, where Seiji had only come to the realization he intended to marry Nicholas days ago, had not planned or thought about it any more than that before speaking. It was in stark opposition to their usual dynamic and it amused him almost as much as it thrilled him.

“I was waiting for the right moment. You threw everything out of whack—I wasn’t planning to make a huge scene of it. I know you don’t like that, being part of a spectacle when it’s related to something personal. Didn’t want to embarrass you too much. But then you had to go and tell me to marry you in the middle of a conversation at the summer fucking barbecue.”

“I got what I wanted.”

“Was there ever any doubt?”

Seiji reached across the table, twining his hand with Nicholas’s, delighting in the hard, warm metal that banded around Nicholas’s finger and made holding his hand feel new too.

“No,” he said. “Not even for a moment.”

**Author's Note:**

> I mean, i had it written already so why not post it...? I'm not an established relationship sort of gal usually but like...I also don't do epilogues or time skips for my projects really so here's a floating epilogue instead. It can be attached to any of my other fics you would like or read as its own thing.


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